Thursday, October 18, 2007

Desert Classic Regatta/Fall Series 1, 2007

Winds were good for the Desert Classic Regatta, but it was not a peaceful day, with a speedboat "poker run" being hosted at the lake on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007. cut right through the sail regatta's start-finish line, passing close by sailboats at high speeds. The Rio Grande Sailng Club hosted the Desert Classic Regatta at Elephant Butte Lake as the first regular fall series regatta of the season.

For a short while, the race area was surrounded by roaring thunder and great waves as a group of speedboaters came through during their "poker run".

"Rags", a Rhodes 19 owned by "Captain Groovy", is out on a great day for sailing.

Constellation at the Desert Classic Regatta, Sept. 22-23, 2007

Governor's Cup Regatta, Rio Grande Sailing Club

Constellation passes the race committee signal boat, the J-22 "Scirocco's Song". Measured in minutes, the start line was very long indeed. A b fleet boat couldn't even start at her signal during the third race start.

U, the Etchells "Constellation",omes up from astern.

The Etchells USA 522, skippered by "Applelady", glides along. At right is the J-24 K

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Ghost Ranch Scenery near Abiquiu, New Mexico

The drive from Santa Fe to Heron Lake passes through some outstanding landscapes.

The red rock country around Ghost Ranch offers dramatic beauty, some good hiking trails, scenic vistas of mountains and Abiquiu Lake. The area has been popular with movie producers and has also been a productive site for archaeologists digging up dinosaur bones.

New Mexico Sailing Club work party at Heron Lake

View of the work barge from up on the marina point. A portion of the long truss can be seen in the background. Only a couple of Sunfish dinghies remained this late in the sailing season; most of the fleet was out of the water.

A and B docks with the Narrows visible beyond. In the center foreground is the work barge with the work party visible on board. At this point, the B south truss had been partially raised and placed on floats.

View from the northeast corner of the marina, with pavilion, work barge, and Willow Creek boat ramp in background.

Highlander, George, Typhoon, and Columbia work out their plans on the work barge.

The Thing, aka Pat's trimaran

Constructed of planks joining encased foam floats, the "trimaran" is actually a support for a gangway extension. A 32-foot gangway is to be placed on top of most of the float, jacked up onto supports, and linked to the swinging gangway shown at top left. This should extend the gangway system enough so that these gangways can be connected to the 64-long gangway that is now resting on the marina point. Of course, quite a bit of work still remains to be done, including preparation of a skidway or runway for the top of the long gangway, and hoisting of the long gangway into position. Behind the swinging gangway is the point at which the gangways will be aimed.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Start of the Sunrise Regatta

And they're off... So begins the 2007 Sunrise Regatta at Elephant Butte Lake in southern New Mexico. This year, 10- and 25-mile races were offered. When the lake is full, a 50-mile race occurs, with the potential for racers to be out all night. However, this year's strong breeze meant that even the last remaining boat, a participant in the 25-mile non-spinnaker fleet, completed the course before full dark. The Sunrise Regatta is hosted and sponsored by the Rio Grande Sailing Club.

Cougar of the Lake, Imagine, and Kachina take off from the start.

"Cougar of the Lake", a Santana 20, has plenty of get up and go in a breeze.

"Imagine", a Columbia 26 with Mike and Becky.

Dream Catcher, a 30-foot Hunter that was not in the race, got a good look at all the racers.

Scirocco's Song, a J22, heads up the course with Jon, Allan, and Justin on board.

Scenery near Ghost Ranch and Abiquiu Lake

Governor's Cup regatta, October 14, Elephant Butte Lake

The Governor's Cup began Saturday, October 13, 2007, with lots of wind, limiting the boats that competed. We were at Heron Lake that day, working on the marina. Without crew, and with the heavy conditions that had been forecast, and with so much yet to be fixed on the boat, sailing in the regatta wasn't a good option for us. Saturday night late we came down to Butte. Sunday morning we launched Black Magic.

This day there wasn't much wind at all. We had a nice bit of breeze as we left the boat ramp near the Marina del Sur, but as we reached Rattlesnake Island the breeze faded away to nearly nothing, leaving us unable to make the first race until the first boats were nearly finished. We started, but then came back and took a "DNF" (did not finish) so as not to hold everyone else up. The one B fleet boat in that race, a Catalina 22, gave up on the extremely light winds and motored back to the start/finish line. We then participated, loosely speaking, in two more, loosely speaking, races, so to speak. Winds were very light and very variable. During the third race, the beat turned into a run (well, in slow motion) for a while. But, then, they say, that on average, the winds are perfect.

Our sailing was not the best and the boat still needs work. We managed to keep the boat moving and recover from some mistakes (I even recovered a topping lift that had decided to take a trip up the mast), but competitively we didn't do at all well.